The Archer and His Arrows
PPT 1 Series Title Bow and Arrows
PPT 2 Today's message title
We are starting a series of messages on Bow and Arrows.
We will look at several different archers: God, man, satan. We will talk about the arrow making process and the purpose of arrows, and we will use these natural things to teach spiritual truths. Today we will talk about the archer and his arrows, and will talk about the role of the Great Archer, purpose, and hitting life's mark.
PPT 3 Text
Ro 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.
Ro 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
Without God there is no purpose in life you are just a random mutation. You have no more meaning than a rock, you are no better than a blade of grass, just smarter.
The biblical view of life is radically different and exponentially more fulfilling than that. We were created for a purpose, there is a reason for our existence.
More properly we are a complexity created for many purposes.
Rick Warren in his best selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life," lists 5 reasons or purposes for which we were made, the 5th one he discusses is that we were made for a mission. Today I want to tie that thought into our series on arrows with this simple linking thought. Arrows are made for a mission. They are made for the purpose to which the archer intends them.
Our first text for today says that God calls people according to His purpose. For a plan for them that He has in mind. For His reasons. For His goals. To complete His overall scheme. To fulfill His desire. Not only does He call people for His purpose, but before they were born He made plans to see to it that they came in to alignment with that purpose.
Let me illustrate it this way, I have here a 30 minute sand time. Can this timer decide it wants to be a piano? It can, but it would be fighting the nature God put in it. Because no matter how much it wants to be a piano, it was never fashioned for that purpose. It will never be truly happy trying to be something it wasn't made to be.
PPT 4 Text
2Ti 1:9 who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, (KJV)
Your purpose is identified here as a holy calling, think about that! And it is based not on your abilities, but on the purpose and sovereign decisions God made from all eternity. We exist for the reasons He has decided.
The arrow exists for the archer, the archer doesn't exist for the arrow.
Said another way, we exist to fulfill His desires, He doesn't exist to fulfill ours. Illustrate with a phone. I don't exist to do what the phone wants, the phone exists to do what I want. If you get that mixed up, and many people do, you will find life is very frustrating. A lot of people think God exists to serve them and make them happy. He doesn't, but if you fulfill your purpose, you will find life is much more enjoyable.
I am come that they might have life and that more abundantly. Life more abundantly is found in being what God wants you to be, not in Him being your personal bell hop.
So God calls us to fulfill a purpose (actually many purposes) today I want to talk about how the archer chooses his wood and how arrows are made and integrate that idea with God's purposes for our lives.
PPT 5 Text
Isa 49:2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me, And He has also made Me a select arrow; He has hidden Me in His quiver. (NAS)
(Hint for Pastors. I brought several pieces of wood to illustrate the next session of the message. I brought a dowel I purchased at Home Depot, a relatively straight branch, and branch that was semicircular, and finally a notty gnarly twisted thick vine. As I went through my message I used those pieces of wood to illustrate my points. I used the dowel to illustrate there is nothing like that in the woods, we all are in need of work by the Archer to become His arrow. I used the other pieces to illustrate that a good wood worker can make almost any piece of wood into an arrow with steam and pressure, and God is better than any woodworker on earth. I also made the point that the Master Archer chooses the wood for the purpose He has for it. People will often tell God they can't do what He wants, but He knows better what we can do than we ourselves know. He knew everything about us when He pulled us from the forest. Before we were born He knew what piece of wood we would be, and He knew exactly what He could do with it.)
The first thing is for the archer to decide what he wants the arrow for? That will impact the type of wood, the length, the weight, the tip used etc.
God always picks the wood with His purposes in mind. He knows exactly what we are capable of as an arrow in His hands.
Secondly the archer goes to the woods and looks for the right tree, and the right branch. We would look for a relatively straight branch, God is not so concerned about that, because God makes crooked things straight.
God is an absolutely amazing arrow maker. He can take the most gnarly, knot filled, vine wrapped, bug infested piece of wood in the forest and turn it into a championship winning arrow. All you need is a piece of wood and a master arrow maker.
It is not what you are capable of that really matters. What really matters is what God can do with you.
PPT 6 text
Ps 147:2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel.
In other words God uses people the world has rejected to populate His kingdom. The branches no one would ever pick, God picks to make His choice arrows! Even Jesus was the stone the builders rejected.
Imagine Jesus and God going through the woods.
Hey Dad look at this piece of wood. (God) Oooo I can do something really special with that one.
Yeah but the other pieces of wood won't think much of it. (God) They will have to get over it.
Circle wood. Crooked wood. I can straighten that one out. I can use that one the way it is.
What does the piece of wood do when it is brought to the archer's shop? It compares itself to the other pieces of wood, and attempts to decide what it is good for. When it does that, it completely loses sight that it is the archer who chose it the way it was, with his own end in mind.
Who says you have to look like all the other arrows?
Isn't that a liberating thought? Why do arrows compare themselves to each other? Each one of us is a specially chosen piece of wood, picked, planned, and shaped for specific purposes. Some are made for longer distances, some for short trick shots, some to carry flames, some to penetrate harder substances.
Next week in the second part of this message, I will talk more at length about the arrow making process. But I want to end this message with the story of a Pastor who became very discouraged and he wanted to just die and go to heaven. Something very amazing happened at that point in his life. I read his story while researching for this series of messages.
PPT 7 picture
This is from a guy named Dr. Brian J. Bailey, and I found it on a web site called zionteacher.org
In a certain sense, every believer is like an arrow. God has a mission for each one of us to accomplish and a mark for each one of us to hit. The whole purpose of an arrow is to hit a planned target. The purpose of our lives is to hit the mark that God has ordained for us.
Because God has a specific plan for each of our lives, when we die we will be held accountable as to whether or not we complete it. The Lord made this very clear to me many years ago when I asked Him to end my life and take me to heaven because of the opposition I was facing in the ministry at that time.
God answered my prayer. The angel of the Lord appeared to me one night while I was sleeping. When I awoke, I found him standing above my bed. I came out of my body and stood next to the angel. For a brief moment, which seemed like an eternity, I looked down at my body lying beside my wife who was sleeping peacefully. The realization that my life was over gripped me. I could do no more on this earth to serve the Lord. It was an awesome feeling that everything was over.
The angel turned and I turned together with him. No word was spoken between us. Then it was as though the roof of the parsonage was no longer there and we went quicker than lightning towards heaven, which I could see in the far distance. The nearer we came to heaven, the sadder I became. Although I knew that I was saved, baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit, and living in the light that I had received, strangely, I was not looking forward to going to heaven.
We arrived at the gates of heaven. Standing there, I was shown my whole life from birth to that present moment in a series of pictures, one after another in a matter of seconds. Some of the pictures were blank. I understood that these blank pictures were times in my life when I had failed God, but because I had asked for forgiveness, all memory and record of them had been washed away by the blood of Jesus.
The Lord revealed to me God's purpose for my life. I realized that I had not fulfilled it, for I was dying before my appointed time. In an agony of spirit, I pleaded with the Lord to send me back to earth and give me another chance to fulfill my calling and hit the mark for my life. The angel must have received an order from the Lord, because at that very moment, he and I turned again without a word being spoken, and we went down towards earth at a tremendous speed.
Arriving at my bedside, I saw my body lying there. The angel then touched me and I returned to my body. After a few days I asked the Lord why He had given me that experience. The Lord told me to warn His people that we have to give an account not only of the works we do in our lifetime, but also whether or not we have fulfilled God's calling upon our lives.
Since that time, the burden upon my heart for the Church of Jesus Christ is that every believer hits the mark of God for his life and finishes his course, as Christ did. As the Lord was preparing to go to the cross, He said to His Father in John 17:4, "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do." -
Close: As I close today, I want to challenge you on two things. The first is that we were made to fulfill a mission. We are the arrow, He is the archer, as long as you tell Him where you are supposed to be shot, at which target He should be aiming at, or what kind of arrow you should be, you will never be truly happy. More likely is that you will be miserable. Our purpose is decided by Him, not by us. If that describes you this should be your prayer today: "Lord, I want to quit fighting you and surrender to your purpose and plan for my life."
Secondly, have you been discouraged and tempted to throw in the towel. Did God speak to you through the life of Dr. Bailey that instead of giving up you should be focusing on fulfilling your mission.? As we close this message who wants to commit to fulfilling God's purpose for their life?
